KB Financial chief clinches second term, hands over bank chief post

KB Financial Group on Monday separated the group chairman post and its flagship bank president role for the first time in three years, signaling its new business momentum as the nation’s top-tier banking group, officials said.

The group’s shareholders’ meeting confirmed through an extraordinary meeting that incumbent Chairman and bank chief Yoon Jong-kyoo is to serve for another three-year term, this time as the group’s chairman only. The Kookmin Bank president post is to be filled by Vice President Hur Yin.

“I plan to reinforce the group’s portfolio by expanding the life insurance sector and seeking aggressive mergers and acquisitions,” Yoon said, upon accepting his second term in office.

Yoon, 62, started his financial career at the Korea Exchange Bank in 1973 and was recruited as Kookmin Bank’s deputy president in 2002. Though he stepped down in 2004 amid an accounting failure, he later returned to the financial group as chief financial officer in 2010.

Upon taking office as KB Financial’s top chief in 2014 amid leadership feuds, Yoon took the roles of group chairman and bank president, halting the group’s tradition of separating the group leadership and the banking sector.

Over the past three years under Yoon’s management, KB Financial solidified its position as one of the nation’s top two banking units, outrunning its rival Shinhan Financial Group at times.

Up to the end of the third quarter of this year, KB Financial’s combined net profit stood at 2.75 trillion won ($2.5 billion), up 63.2 percent from a year earlier. In the third quarter alone, it outpaced Shinhan Financial in profits, not only in the banking sector but also in the group total.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)